Marcello

35 Millisecons after? what? this is strange, how can be possible?

Thanks! Well I made everything on my own, with just a pc, an audio interface and a guitar, that’s it. I have anyway did some more EQ to my drum tracks, decreased the cymbals and I put the hihat higher. I will check the song forum then.

Ah thanks a lot for the honesty! Indeed as I said I'm not a drummer, I just needed a drummer telling me this sucks! Anyway I don't do normal pop rock, I make Post-Rock, Post-hardcore stuff, so quite different style. So if you were imagining a normal zumpappazumpappazumpappa with a crash once in a while that's not my thing. But you are not referring to the crash volume right? I suppose you are referring to the way it's played, less crashes? I did put lots of crashes in the chaotic part, to make it sound a bit more chaotic, too much maybe? Have you heard the solo drum part or the whole song with the other instruments? Usually in very slow parts I keep the tempo with crashes or ride, to feel that emptiness between a kick and a snare.

I based myself on a record I like, and since I will have the bass quite high in volume, it will partially eat the kick so I raised it a bit. I can put down the volume a bit anyway. Thanks a lot

Not sure what you mean with center the kick ? it's not panned left or right, it's in the center.

Thanks for the advice, consider there is no Hihat in this drum part at all, maybe just ones in a while. Btw to me the cymbals volume here is a bit lower than the kick and the snare, should be less? Here's the whole song preview for you, it's already mastered but not definitive, I have to record it with a real bass here I use a shifter for guitar plugin. I know there is too much reverb on the distorted part on guitars which I already removed btw. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1VcY4ISXdpF7N_I0RFO9SGCxiSrJ162r1/view?usp=sharing

Hi there, I'm not a drummer or a pro sound engineer, I'm a guitar player, and I have made the drums track with NI Studio Drummer programming plugin, now I'm not sure how a good "real" drums should sound. Here's a sample of my drums track, could someone please tell me how it sounds to you? is it enough realistic? What should I improve? Is it too dry or unbound, or too much reverb? I guess not being a drummer doesn't help me, I would need an advice from a drummer or someone who recorded drums for a while and knows how real drums should sound in a good pro mix, thanks a lot! Ah I specify I don't want my drums to sound metal, neither jazz or low fi, I'm playing post rock so big deep sound and quite modern feel would be just fine, generally like this I like it. Here's the link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1RQGt9G9j9w57yjemvS9xwZOMulmt35zX/view?usp=sharing

Ok, anyway at the end I have raised quite a bit the THU guitar reverb directly from the different tracks, this because the THU reverb has a very typical guitar amp reverb, while the general bus reverb plugin is more like a HALL, ROOM, or ORCHESTRA, kind of reverb, and it hase way too many kinds of reverbs set up. I have anyway kept also the bus reverb one on all guitars only on clean parts, it sounds good to be but I cannot identify with my ears any "mud" , maybe there is I don't know I'm not a pro So at the end I put reverb on guitar tracks and on the general bus You can give a listen and tell me if it sounds good to you? would be of great help, also if you have any other suggestion, this track is already mastered but still work in progress. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1VcY4ISXdpF7N_I0RFO9SGCxiSrJ162r1/view?usp=sharing

Do you mean reverb level just under the send? I didn't check that to be honest just noticed, I have just tried to balance it from the reverb bus volume, not from send, indeed.

@bitflipper I get what you are saying, since I'm not a sound engineer and I just self-learned these things on my own, I'm missing an opinion from en expert indeed. I guess we could speak a lot but at the end only our ears count, I think I might give up and give you a preview of my song ( it's an already mastered sample but with fake bass, I need to record it with a real bass later) it's still work in progress, anyway if you could give me a suggestion if the amount of reverb sounds fine to you or too much muddy, and if anything else you would suggest I can improve would be of great help, thanks a lot, hope you like it. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1VcY4ISXdpF7N_I0RFO9SGCxiSrJ162r1/view?usp=sharing

@lapasoa In fact I kind of agree with you! I use THU for my guitars, which has very good and typical guitars reverb, so in the clean guitar tracks I put a lot of reverb directly in there. But someone says that is not great to have one reverb for each track because the various reverbs could overlap and make some "mud" in the sound, so they suggest to put one send reverb bus with one general reverb and to keep the single tracks reverb at 0. To be honest I tried but the general reverb bus plugin has too many kinds of reverb and it's difficult to choose the right one, plus they are not guitar amp reverbs but rather general ones like HALL, ROOM, BALLROOM, ORCHESTRA etc... So at the end I have re-increased the THU reverbs in the single guitar tracks, but still kept also the general reverb bus a little bit and not too loud, cause in any case it seems to sound good. I'm just afraid a bit of this "mud" that can be created by using both THU reverb and general bus reverb, I'm not an expert in sound engeneering but to me this setup sound good.

Basically I have this situation, these are my buses, would you suggest to leave it like this? (drums will hit -4.0 dbs), or to decrease the drums volume but then I have to decrease the guitars volume too and will go to -12/-14 volume

"The only points that matter are above 0" meaning it should be fine then if the peak is around -4.0 dbs? thing is that my drums are clipping a bit, the kick especially (hitting -4.0), but I need them louder than the guitars, the guitars volume is already at -10 (not dbs) in the bus volume bar, I don't want to decrease even more the guitar volume for the drums to be heard more. Not sure what you mean with "inter sample peak where all the samples are not clipping but the wave does when regenerated"

It seems that the FreeG meter clipping peak is not matching the Cakewalk one (see screenshot) Who should I trust ? Also I'm keeping al tracks very close to the peak of -6dbs sometimes it breaks it and reach -4dbs, the RMS bottom one stays anyway around -18dbs, does it really make a difference if I break the peak a little bit and reach -4dbs? is there a tolerance?

Anyway for mastering the songs you should try LANDR, it's great, it uses AI to master your tracks, you just upload your songs (online) and you choose different styles of masters and boom, done! You can even upload a song of your favourite artist that you like the sound and it will make your song sounds like that.

Many thank for the advices, at the end I have used the bus reverb keeping it not too loud and increased quite a lot the ones in the guitars in the single tracks plugin, this because the reverb bus plugin has an infinite kinds of reverb and it's quite difficult to choose the right one for the guitars, while the one in the single tracks plugin (TH3) it's just one kind typical for guitar amps and I like the sound more. I hope this won't create too much "mud" as you said but to me it sounds good. Just left the distorted guitars with no reverb in the single tracks but very low bus reverb.

Got it, How do you usually balance the reverb for an optimal sound? I know this is quite subjective but more or less the reverb bus volume should be the same level with the guitar bus (no reverb) ? Meaning the volume of both should be equal? So I have a bus with guitars (no reverb) and a bus with guitars including reverb. I noticed that when the guitars are clean higher reverb volume sounds good but when they are distorted the guitar sound can be a bit more confusing. What's your opinion about it?

SHould I have 2 busesfor guitars with no reverb and one with it or just one bus with reverbed guitars?

Hi there, I have sent all guitar tracks to a Reverb bus I just created, so I have a bus with guitars (no reverb) and a bus with guitars including reverb. How do you usually balance the reverb for an optimal sound? I know this is quite subjective but more or less the reverb bus volume should be the same level with the guitar bus (no reverb) ? Meaning the volume of both should be equal? I noticed that when the guitars are clean higher reverb volume sounds good but when they are distorted the guitar sound can be a bit more confusing. What's your opinion about it?

thanks! I did all that, but my Master volume is still clipping a bit, I didn't gain staged the master volume, would you suggest to lower the gain or the volume of the master (now at 0)?

Great thanks a lot! I got it, so I kept some guitars snd drums reverb on the single tracks but very very low. (Hope is fine) Then I created a bus reverb and instead of SENDING the single tracks to the reverb I sent the guitar bus to the reverb bus directly, I guess it’s the same. Keeping the reverb bus volume the same level with guitar bus volume. I see you have basically routed not just guitars but also drums to the same reverb bus, would you suggest to send drums to reverb bus as well together? Consider I already applied some Room Reverb to the drums in the Studio Drummer plugin

Can I apply effects to busses even if I didn't use the Send? but either sent the tracks output to the bus directly?

Thanks a lot, I think I got it, so I have applied reverb on every single track instrument already, then routed every track to the respective bus ( with no send but from track output ), the different buses have no effects apart from some eq low pass, and I had to lower the gain to -3.0 to each bus because it was clipping, even if the general track volume now is a bit lower than before but at least not clipping, would you suggest to add other reverb on the single buses as well?

Thanks a lot so basically I have re-done all gain staging starting with no effects each track staying between -18 and -6dbs, then balanced the effects output not to clip, then redirected the tracks outputs to the respective buses and deleted the "SENDs" to bus. The overall volume is a bit lower but I think this should be the correct way right? I have the following situation now. I also gain staged the busses, now they are at -3 gain, the master bus slightly still clips, would you suggest to decrease the master bus gain also keeping the volume at 0? or decreasing the master bus volume and keeping the gain at 0?

Hi there I need some help. The audio tracks output of my guitars, drums and bass should go: 1- to the respective bus 2- or to the audio interface and then select the tracks and right click > send to respective buses ? Not sure what is the difference between using the "SEND" to bus option or pointing the track output directly to the respective bus without using "SEND". If I use the 1st option when I decrease the master volume it doesn't decrease completely the sound (probably because there is still the sound left that is sent to audio int.), in this case also the song overall volume is quite higher. If I use option 2 if I decrease the master bus volume it decreases everything at the same time, with this option the overall volume is quite lower, and if I raise the master volume over 0 it starts clipping, hence I decreased the master GAIN, is this good practice? I think this 2nd option should be the correct one, even if the overall song sound seems a bit low. I suppose should be ok because after I should be able to increase the volume during the master, even if I hope it will be enough loud. I'm just trying to make the mix as loud as possible and keeping it under the 6 dbs thrashold so that the master would be easier to handle. What do you suggest? OPTION1 OPTION2